140 



The Grape Culturist. 



turios. Gorman, Swiss and French 

 immigrants repeatedly tried the cul- 

 ture of the European Grape (Vitis 

 Vinirera), but it generally proved a 

 failure in this country. Two centu- 

 Tios, hundred thousands of dollars, and 

 the labors of hundreds of zealous 

 vintners devoting their lives to the 

 culture of the vine, were lost in the 

 attempt to establish the imported 

 grape on this soil. And when wo 

 consider that all attempts to trans- 

 plant the grapes of Spain and South- 

 ern France to Germany were in vain ; 

 that the varieties of Austria and Ilun- 

 garia could not be successfully trans- 

 planted to the "Rhein;" that the 

 Riesling of Northern German}' loses 

 its delicious bouquet when transplan- 

 ted to the Southern States of Europe, 

 and the Bordeaux vine loses its char- 

 acter when removed from the vicinity 

 of Bordeaux; — it is astonishing only 

 that European vintners did not aban- 

 don much earlier their unsuccessful 

 attempts to introduce the European 

 vine on American soil, and did not 

 begin much earlier to cultivate the 

 native grape. Xo doubt some un- 

 scrupulous propagators, taking advan- 

 tage of some temporary and excep- 

 tional success with a few European 

 vines, carefully concealed their own 

 failures and prolonged the error. We 

 have before us a Catalogue of Grape 

 Vines for Spring of 18(39, printed at 

 8t. Louis, containing a long list of Eu- 

 ropean grapes introduced by the fol- 

 lowing remark : 



"EUROPEAN GRAPES. 



"The varieties marked ^ have been 

 <ultivated by myself for the last fif- 

 teen years in open ground, and find 

 them very suitable to our climate, pro- 



ducing fine fruits every year, and are 

 never injured by the winter; I have 

 only covei'ed with three to four inches 

 soil, and therefore I can recommend 

 those sorts ver}- highly. Those marked 

 f I only cultivated since 1860, and 

 find them just equal to the first, the 

 rest I imported last spring ; I have no 

 doubt I will find the same result." 



We knew the grounds referred to 

 in the above for the last fifteen years, 

 and can state that they never con- 

 tained half as many bearing vines as 

 the catalogue contains varieties. 



That with special care, in very shel- 

 tered positions and in the peculiar 

 atmosphere of large cities, some Euro- 

 pean varieties will produce fine fruits 

 we admit; but whoever will attempt 

 to grow them in ordinary vieyarnds, 

 even with the best care, will find en- 

 tirely different results. 



Fortunately, the success of a Long- 

 worth and others with the Catawba, 

 has inaugurated a new era in grape 

 growing, and the error of selecting 

 European grapes for vineyard plant- 

 ing is now committed by but very few. 

 But with this new era, the errors of 

 our grape culturists in the selection of 

 varieties were not at an end, they 

 were merely led in a different direc- 

 tion. 



The Catawba was considered the 

 grape for America — as if this vast 

 land of ours, with such a diversity of 

 soil and climate, would not, as surely 

 as the different sections of Europe, 

 find peculiarly adapted varieties for 

 each section and prove less suitable 

 for others. Many years of failures 

 with the Catawba in most sections, 

 have scarcely sufficed to cure the vine 

 gi'owers from this fatal error, and oven 



